American Go E-Journal » Tools: books, software & hardware

Slate & Shell is offering a special opportunity for US go clubs and AGA chapters to get books for prizes and libraries: 50% off on all Slate & Shell books. Minimum order is ten books. Send an email to customerservice@slateandshell.com for instructions.

The Houston Go Club is hosting a pro teaching workshop with Janice Kim June 3-4 in Houston Texas. The weekend event will go from 9:00 to 5:00 both days, with lunch included. Ms. Kim (professional 3 Dan) will lead the workshop. The event will be held at the Houston City Club, One City Club Drive, Houston, Texas 77046. This event is offered with the financial help of the AGA, for just $20 per participant. There is limited seating, so you must pre-register. Preregistration can be done on the Houston Go club Facebook page under Events. Fees will be collected thru Eventbrite. Contact Paul Howard of the Houston Go club for more details. paulrhowardtx@gmail.com

Four out-of-print titles from Slate and Shell are now available through Amazon.

200 Endgame Problemsby Shirai Haruhiko. Long out of print, this popular collection of problems covers common situations from simple endgame tesuji to complex issues that require careful reading and counting.

AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol: The Match that Changed the World of Goby Yuan Zhou. In a detailed commentary of the five game match between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, Zhou explains why Lee should not have won the fourth game but should have won the fifth while also discussing the strengths and possible weaknesses of AlphaGo.

Single Digit Kyu Game Commentariesby Yuan Zhou. Zhou thoroughly investigates a variety of mistakes that are common among weaker players, and illustrates how to deal with many common situations correctly.

Leap PQ9903: “The MGA battled about this for about a year before finally settling on the Leap PQ9903,” writes Neil Ritter in response to the February 25 Your Move/Readers Write: Looking for go clocks posting, noting the clocks were more affordable through Alibaba compared to Amazon. It’s “perhaps important to note explicitly that this clock doesn’t do Canadian Byoyomi particularly well,” Neil adds. A thread summarizing the Massachusetts Go Association’s discussion on the topic can be found here.

DGT3000: “I believe the best game clock for the money is the DGT3000,” suggests Dave Baran. “I am aware of three clocks that currently available that have both Japanese and Canadian byo-yomi: the DGT3000, the Cronos, and the Duel Timer.” Dave notes that the Excalibur is an affordable option that might be available on EBay, but has been discontinued from production. Dave adds that, “the byo-yomi time control on the Zmartfun II chess clock is inadequate.”

Amazon.com: “You can get just about anything from Amazon.com,” points out Ralph Meyer, suggesting searching for “Chess Clocks”.– Edited by Brian Kirby

Many go players around the world already know that Guo Juan 5P has an online go school, featuring recorded lectures and problems presented in a Spaced Repetition System for remembering correct play. But you may not know about the new developments. “My website/system has made big improvements in the last half year,” Guo Juan explains. “Now you can use tablets and phones to do the exercises, which makes possible for people to use the system anywhere, instead of sitting before the computer.” She adds that “One of our website users (has) posted a thorough overview/review.”

One of the largest English-language go communities, LifeIn19x19.com, is back online. The site suffered a downtime of about 12 days beginning on February 6th, reports Adrian Petrescu. It was brought back online last Saturday (details here). “I worry we lost a lot of people who gave up on retrying to access the site after over a week,” says Petrescu. “Pretty much every feature that existed before the downtime has been restored,” he adds.

Go translator and historian John Fairbairn draws upon his phenomenal knowledge of go history and his collection of classic works to craft “Meijin of Meijins: The Life and Times of Honinbo Shuei,” an entertaining and educational book covering the life of one of the strongest members of the Honinbo “family,” Honinbo Shuei. Shuei has long been the most admired and emulated player amongst go professionals in Japan. He gave Honinbo Shusai black in every game they played, and won a solid majority of them. It is a marvel that he became so strong, because during his lifetime, the go world in Japan was thrown into turmoil with the abolishment of government support by the new Meiji apparatus. How the Honinbos and other go families coped with their reversal of fortunes makes for a good read.

With a grand total of just three diagrams in the book, this is not the book for those interested in reviewing Shuei’s games. But if you want a taste of the inside workings of the go community during the late 1800s up to 1908, this is an absolute jewel. There are some organizational problems with the narrative, with some repetition of events – perhaps because the book is pulled from a larger e-book (which does contain commented games) with “light editing.” But overall, the writing is excellent and for fans of go history, I highly recommend this book. It’s published using Amazon’s instant-printing process, which offers quality comparable to mainstream paperback go books with an amazingly low price ($9.99).

Kiseido’s recent website tech issues have been resolved, reports Richard Bozulich. Click here to go to Kiseido’s new secure URL. “In the meantime, until February 6, Kiseido is having a sale of all its books with with discounts of up to 15% and free shipping,” says Bozulich.

A new book by Richard Bozulich has just been added the SmartGo’s Go Books app. “This one is aimed at beginners and is free for a limited time,” says SmartGo’s Anders Kierulf. “I think it covers the basics really well.”

“How to Play Go: A Concise Introduction” by Richard Bozulich and James Davies is a straightforward introduction to the rules of the game, with example games and problems, as well as chapters on opening strategy, elementary tactics, life and death, and handicap go strategy.

For a limited time, this book is available for free inside the Go Books app (on iPhone and iPad). “Please consider recommending this free book and the Go Books app to friends who are curious about go,” Kierulf urges. The book will be free until January 28; after that, the price will be $3.99.